A Game of Chance
by XXxxxadisxxxXX
Summary: I mean what was the worst that could happen? God, I wish I never won that fucking bet.
1. The Hand of Fate

**Edit:** I went through and fixed a few lines and grammar errors

**AN: **I know this is a lot shorter than most of my stuff if you want to know why read the AN at the end. Other than that disclaimer is on my profile. ~enjoy

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

-Setting-

The Hand of Fate

Has anybody ever told you fun it is to play poker? Have you ever gotten to sit around with some friends, pass out some cards, and play a few hands? It's always been one of my favorite things to do and like usual I've been losing.

"Vinnie you're up," I said.

The short lanky guy across from me looked to his hand then back up at me. In between two of his fingers was a crooked cigarette that helped to make the poorly lit room seem even darker. Vinnie flicked the cherry of his cigarette and put his face down on the table.

"Goddammit Jackie, stop rushing me," he replied.

Vinnie fingered the green velvet on the table for a few scarce seconds then told the group, "Ugh, I fold."

He put his cards towards the center of the table and took another drag from his cigarette. Three of the people in the room looked over to Vinnie's left as a rather fat man grumbled something about "Youngsters having no patience these days."

Vinnie smothered out the end of his cigarette in a nearby ashtray then called out "Come on Little Bear! We only got till eight."

Little Bear messed with the ring on his pinky and looked down at the cards in his hand. He pulled one from the left while saying, "Call."

The last person in the booth with us was almost the exact opposite of Little Bear, a skinny kid who looked more in place with a crowd of teenagers than us. I started to tap my ring finger on the table as small chimes were let out with each tap. Looking down a black wring came into view. The ring looked to be made out of some dark-colored metal with small white streaks going through it.

Etched into the dark metal were the words Family and Honor.

Little Bear turned to the kid almost trying to stare him down. I saw a slight twitch in Little Bear's brows as he checked the time on his watch. He always liked to be doing something, talking, eating, messing with his ring, checking the time; it could be anything as long as he had something to fiddle with.

The old-timers were weird like that.

I looked to little bear's counterpart as he stuttered, "Raise. C-Come on now, B-Big Bear's t-trying to bring h-home the big bucks!"

Unlike what most would think he's not nervous, at least I think he's not. According to Little bear, and part of his family, Big Bear got caught up in some kind of fight a few years back. Luckily he didn't have to go to the hospital, but, after his jaw's close encounter with a crowbar, he's never been able to speak straight since

Big Bear ruffled his suit with one hand and pushed forward four red chips with the other. I looked down at my measly two and thought _Crap._

Big Bear noticed my distress and asked, "Y-You wan-wanna just s-split it?"

I sat up in our booth and disagreed "Nah, just put em down. I'm betting Tiny over there don't got anything."

Little Bear pursed his lips at my name-calling then chided me with, "You know that was only one time."

"One time? You mean the last six hands?" I interrupted.

The old man pulled at the tie going over his pinstripe suit and growled, "I don't know why I even come to these things anymore. You young-ins are gonna bleed me dry."

I gave him a cheeky smile and said "Come on Gramps you know love us. Hell, I got you that Frank Sinatra Record; that's gotta count for something right?"

Just as Little Bear was about to say something Vinnie interrupted us both by waving his left hand in the air. On it sat a ring very similar to my own; the only difference between the two was color. His was purple.

"Enough you two. Start fighting again and we'll be here all night. Put em down so can get outta here." interrupted Vinnie.

Big Bear nodded towards him and threw his five cards on the table.

The five black cards scattered onto the black velvet as I thought _Two aces, not bad but not good enough._

I motioned over to Little Bear and he brought one of his enormous hands onto the table. The five cards he laid out were comical in comparison to his meaty hands. Immediately I could see Big Bear deflate as the last card came into view.

_And that's game_.

Big Bear's five cards consisted of three queens, a two, and a seven. Looking back down at my hand I let that cheeky smile come back full force. I started to layout each card as the anticipation in the room started to build. Little Bear's beady eyes narrowed as I put down the last card.

Laid out in perfect view of everyone at our table were four kings and an ace. Little Bear let out a groan and put one of his hands in the air. Just as quickly as the limb went up it came back down. The five cards below him scattered in the wind as he growled "A four of a kind? You gotta be kidding me!"

I raked a hand through my brown hair and told him, "Reed em and weep Old Timer. You gotta step up your game; you know what this means though?"

Vinnie started fumbling around in his suit for another cigarette as he asked: "What?"

"That this guy doesn't have to work while we're here!" I crowed.

The unlit cigarette in Vinnie's mouth fell as he gaped like a fish. He brought his eyes down to the chips I had left then blurted out, "No way...no way and hell man! We came here because of the new merchandise; you can't just pull out like that!"

I started counting out my chips then said, "Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five...that's what we said right?"

Little Bear decided it was a good time to join back in.

"Yeah, whoever got the most would get to skip out," answered Little Bear.

Big Bear cracked a smile at our antics and asked me, "W-What're ya-you gonna do?"

Taking a second to check the time on my phone I explained "While you guys are out-" I took a second and peaked my head out of our booth. "-redistributing some prime real estate to it's 'rightful' owners I think I'll explore the city a little bit."

"And do what? This isn't like back home where you can get into your brand of fun," asked Vinnie.

At the mention of my type of 'fun', a small grimace appeared on Little Bear's face as he continued on with, "The last time you...you know what? I don't care. We're in Japan, not Cecily. Just don't die, and be back before we have to leave."

I thought back to the last time I had a night on the town. A couple of images of some of my boys running around drunk throwing flaming potatoes past through my mind. _Good Times _I thought.

Standing up from the table I said, "I'll see you all tomorrow, Family and Honor." as the two words left my lips the three men at the table let out a trio of voices that repeated, "Family and Honor."

I walked out of the booth thinking _My Luck's looking up today. __What's the worst that can happen?_

About two hours later after a run-in with the police, a kidnapping, meeting MBI's black dog, and getting thrown through a wall I'd learn just that.

**AN: **Alright I'll start out with what this whole story actually is. This is mainly going to be me challenging myself to write some things that I'm not particularly good at. Those things being dialogue and romance. Don't get me wrong I still greatly enjoy writing stuff like this, but it's just more time-consuming. Because of that and my focus mainly being on my other series, the chapters on this are going to be a bit light. Normally I have around 8K or so words for my chapters and with this one, I have around 1.4K. The chapter-length for this story is going to fluctuate a lot, but it will still be a coherent story so don't worry. It will also be fun to pull out some of the characters and scenes that I've thrown around in my head and have never really put into action.

Other than that if you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to send me a message or leave a review. See you guys next time.

~ciao


	2. Can You Say Oink?

**AN: **Disclaimer is on profile. Extreme violence warning. ~enjoy

Language

Porco = pig

Cazzo = dick

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

-Setting-

Can You Say Oink?

You know getting arrested for being a 'public nuisance' was a first for me. I mean come on! What did I do? This crap was starting to get annoying. Was it the suit? Was that why the world collectively decided it was shit on Jackie day?

_The first day here and this shit happens._ I thought.

Standing across from me in the parking lot was a Japanese cop, if you could call him that. The tubby bastard looked more fit delivering mail than busting criminals, but hey that's just what I think. Even without me saying anything to the guy I could already see he was scared.

One of the cop's pudgy hands inched closer and closer to his hip as he stuttered out, "S-Sir you need to come with me."

I looked him up and down and tried my best to flash him a smile. Suffice to say he didn't like it. His already doe looking eyes turned to pin dots as he went as pale as a ghost. The cop opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it.

_Why the hell does shit always happen to me? I'm just trying to be nice! It's like he's scared of me or something. Hell, I'm not even that tall just barely six feet!_

After giving the cop another once over I thought _Or maybe that's pretty tall here. When we went to the states nobody acted like this._

The cop finally looked like he got a hold of himself as he ordered, "Sir you're disrupting the peace; you need to come with me!"

I tried to keep it friendly by asking, "And just how am I doing that? By looking scary?"

He started to walk towards me with one of his hands on his hip; I could see him steel himself for a second as he gripped what I could only assume was a gun. What little people were left nearby started to quickly flee the scene.

_Ya know back in Cecily I'd never have to deal with this shit. At least the cops there had some respect...well they also knew that if they didn't they wouldn't be cops for much longer but that's beside the point. Well, it's better than during the war at least._

I looked back down as he pulled a...revolver? In disbelief, I thought _What type of police force gives out revolvers?_

It looked like a Smith and Wesson; I could see the S and M symbol engraved along the barrel. It had a wooden handle, a snubbed barrel, and five rounds of .38 ready to be unloaded in my chest. It's nothing that I'd use, but whatever makes him feel safe I guess.

His hands started trembling as he pulled it out of the holster. He was directly in front of me now; I could almost smell the coffee and early onset heart disease from here. Just as he brought it up to meet my chest, I thought _Well he's already scared, why not play with that a little?_

I pulled myself forward just enough to let the barrel of his gun touch my chest. I could see the cop's eyes widen as I opened my mouth.

"Come on big boy, take your shot. But you better not fucking miss!" I ground out.

As the words left my lips I did my best to tower myself over the diminutive man while the feeling of cold metal through my suit made my heart race. I looked down at his hand and the cop wasn't even holding the gun right.

His pinky was noticeably off the pistol's grip while his fingers were starch white due to him trying to strangle the revolver. Hell, his pointer finger wasn't even near the trigger! I started to lurch my right hand around and thought _This is a waste of my time._

With an almost practiced grace, I wrenched the revolver from his shaky hands gripping it by the barrel. The gun easily slipped from his fingers; it goes to show holding your piece right can do wonders. Normally I'd never pull that type of shit with someone who knew what they were doing but just look at the guy. He was asking for it.

Just as quickly as I pulled the gun from his hand, I brought it high into the sky and down towards his temple. He let out a whimper as a noticeable crack went out into the parking lot. The fatty fell flat on his ass as blood started to drip from his forehead.

_Time to teach this porco some respect._

I pulled back my foot and sent it towards his face. This time he didn't let out a sound, but his head went flying backward only to be met by the concrete below. I walked up to the side of the cop. His eyes were closed and blood was dripping all over his face.

I rearranged the revolver into my hand and knocked open the cylinder. Once again I showed my expertise by quickly making all of the .38 rounds fall out into my hand. After clearing the last chamber I put the bullets into a pocket in my suit.

The officer's eyes came back into focus as the sound of a hammer cocking played out in the parking lot. I grabbed him by the scruff of his uniform and started to drag him over to his police cruiser. The _porco_ fumbled a bit to try and get away, but being five foot three and two hundred and fifty pounds wasn't helping him much.

"Christ, I got more of a workout dragging you over here than kicking your ass!" I groaned.

The cop's eyes glared with obvious distress as I pushed him towards the car. Bringing him around to the bumper I drawled out, "Hey _porco _ya wanna know something?"

He tried his best to answer me but I cut him off. "Ya of course you do! Here's the thing; I love...no I absolutely adore my suits.-" I brought a single finger down to a splotch of blood on the white undershirt of my pinstripe suit.

"-so tell me. What's the problem here?" I slowly asked.

The officer's entire body denoted fear as he squealed, "I-I'm sorry! Just don-"

I brought my ringed hand across the side of his face with an audible whack. The cop tried to finish his sentence with his bloodied lip.

"Domb hult me." he groaned out.

I gave him a patronizing smile and grabbed him by his black hair with my free hand. He, once again, tried to resist as I forced him to face the bumper of the car. I put the empty revolver on top of the trunk and grabbed onto his mouth with my right hand.

"No, no, no. You see where I come from you pay back your dues with-" I squeezed his jaw open with my hands and pushed his open mouth forward onto the metal bumper.

"-interest." I finished.

The radio that was strapped to his belt let out some chatter as the fat man started to cry. I brought my face around to look him in the eyes and situated his head so his top row of teeth were touching the metal. The spittle, blood, and tears were covering him now.

"Maybe next time you'll learn to respect the guy whose gonna be writing your paychecks in a few weeks."

I let go of his jaw and grabbed the gun; he tried to pull himself away but I quietly reminded him why that would be a bad idea. Finally using some of those extra calories for something useful the _porco _decided to finally grow himself a brain and keep still.

Letting go of his hair I straightened out my body and jeered, "Maybe eating through a straw for a few months will teach you some manners."

His obese body started to tremble as I brought back one of my dress shoes and rested it on the back of his head. I could feel him start to struggle again, but the cold reminder of the barrel of a gun into his back made him stop.

I pulled my foot off his head and I could almost see him trying to beg from the corner of his eyes. After raising it about a foot in the air, I stomped down on the back of his oily hair. The entire cruiser lurched with the force of the blow.

"That was for my suit!" I growled.

More blood started to flow from the cop's body, this time from his mouth. Little white pieces of bone shot out into different parts of the parking lot. A molar to my left, an incisor to my right, and one of his front teeth left indented into his car. He dropped to the ground audibly moaning and blubbering something I couldn't understand.

Once again I grabbed him by his greasy hair and pulled him up to the bumper of the police car. Situating his fat head was a lot easier this time. He didn't resist, and there was even a ring of blood and indented metal to show me where to put him.

The blubbering mess of a cop didn't make a sound as I laid my bloody shoe against the back of his head. Bringing it back once more I fumed, "And this one's for my fucking shoes!"

The cop's last front tooth went flying with a couple more being dislodged into the car or onto the ground. With all the blood and viscera covering him I barely noticed the puddle of piss that leaked down his leg. "Goddammit. Fucking animal." I chided as I threw him to the ground.

He collapsed onto the cold pavement and finally stopped his noise making. I leaned down and grabbed his radio flipped it on. The police chatter cut off as a feminine voice asked, "Ikehara? What is it?"

The other side of the radio kept repeating herself as I quietly walked to a nearby parking space. The now named Ikehara rolled over to face me as I set the radio down in the empty parking lot. I gripped the unloaded revolver and started to walk towards the fat bastard.

Just as I reached around a foot from him I tossed the unloaded gun onto his back. He didn't react, but I could see him start shivering as I lightly kicked him in the side. Ikehara looked up to me in fear as I asked, "Well _porco_? You better get crawling before you bleed out you _cazzo_."

I turned around and started walking towards my original destination and thought _The nerve of some people._

**AN: **Well that definitely earned my M rating. I gotta say I like doing this smaller format of writing. The main reason being that I can write a chapter, edit it, and post it all in one sitting. Being able to do that makes it easy to keep the tone and overall chapter less choppy due to me coming back to a chapter every few days in my larger style of writing. Although it is shorter to read so you win some you lose some.

Going onto the story itself now. There's gonna be a whole lot more shit like this so be forewarned. Our protagonist Jackie isn't going to be sadist so don't worry, but he is a sociopath. You'll see later on (I don't know how much later due to chapter size) but he has a reason to act like this.

Trying to keep this story as focused on my goal of 'writing a romance' and 'improving my dialogue' is going to be interesting though. We'll see how it goes and as always if you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to send me a message or leave a review. See you guys next time.

~ciao


	3. Gum is a Metaphor for Something Right?

**Edit: **Just read this over and noticed a few minor errors and fixed them

**AN: **Disclaimer is on my profile. No extreme violence this chapter ~enjoy

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

Gum is a Metaphor for Something Right?

You wanna know how someone is following you? No who am I kidding of course you do! There's a really easy way to spot someone who's being a little too 'sticky'. I like to call it the three-block rule. It's pretty simple to understand.

All you have to do to figure someone out is to take three little detours from where you're heading. I came up with this in back in the states after Salvatore took over. To keep a long and mostly boring story short we had a run-in with the law. Ya know the usual.

There were a few violent deaths and a little bit of drug smuggling and everyone started turning on each other. A gang war in New York was enough to make the entire city on high alert. Every single day I had someone new that was 'keeping track' of me for some reason or another.

Now you might be asking how does that tie into right now?

After my little...debacle with that cop I kept trying to go to my original destination. I was heading towards a bar Vinnie recommended to me. He said it was locally run and had some pretty good booze. Vinnie gave me a few directions and wished me good luck. It was supposed to be smooth sailing from there, but from time to time Murphy is an asshole.

As my walk continued a woman started to stick out of the crowd. Little thoughts started popping up in my head as I saw her for the third time. The first thing I noticed about her was the fucking sword. Oh, what did they call it here? A ka...ka...katana, that's the word! I never paid much attention to that type of stuff; Vinnie would probably know more as he set up this whole trip.

The gray-haired woman had a ridiculously large katana on her back. It was almost as long as she was tall. Hell, I don't even know why no one here wasn't freaking out over the thing. It's around nine now and there are still a few stragglers going about their business, but no one seemed to care about the chick packing a three and a half foot long blade.

_God, this country is backwards. _I thought.

I gave my tail another glance over my shoulder as I turned the corner of the street heading towards what looked like a park. She was still there with the same manic grin on her face; now that I could get a closer look at her face I still didn't recognize it.

She had dull gray eyes and thin eyebrows; her cheekbones were a little high for someone from Japan too. With her hair and face she looked foreign, like me. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail that flowed over her left shoulder.

Her attire was different than people around here as well. It looked like her top was made of thick leather that folded in on itself over her chest. A large brown leather belt went over her hips and I could see she was in a miniskirt. She had stockings on as well as black fingerless gloves. The only other thing I could see in the dim light was the gray cape.

I pulled my phone out from my pocket and thought _Well let's see why you seem so keen to be a pain in my ass._

Just as I opened up my contact list, I could hear the woman's footsteps start to hurry. As quickly as I could I scrolled down to the person Labeled L-Bear and pressed the button to open up a video chat. The street finally ended with the open entrance of a park as Little Bear decided to get off his ass and answer the phone.

"What do ya want?" Little Bear asked.

I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off by chiding, "I told you not to call me this late; I don't got the energy to deal with whatever you did. Figure it out yourself."

One of his enormous hands went towards the camera and I called out, "Oh, come on Little Bear you know I just wanna talk." while stopping my pace to lean down to my shoe.

He stopped his hand right above the end call button as I lightly said, "Crap, I got a piece of gum stuck to my shoe."

The old man's eyes narrowed and he slowly let out a "hmmmmmm..."

As I stood back up I brought the phone just above my shoulder to show him the full view of the woman around thirty feet behind me. In the top right corner of my phone, I could see her standing in full view not even trying to hide her intentions. Either she was laughably bad at this or she just didn't care in the first place.

With the way that crazy smile hasn't left her face, I'm starting to think that the second one is more likely.

After giving Big Bear a good look I brought my phone back down and continued on with, "Ya it's stuck real good; it's being really _persistent_."

I kept following the park's sidewalk and came into view of a small fountain. Like the rest of the city, it was cleaned up well. No trash, no nothing besides the girl sitting on it in a bloody lab coat.

Her face was decidedly blank. Her hair was cut short and from where I was standing I could see the locks swaying in the wind. Each one of them was colored a pale shade of brown and it looked like she had blood splattered in it as well. The most striking thing about her was her eyes. The best way to describe them is cold and dead. The spark of life you would expect to see in someone as beautiful as her just wasn't there. She looked ready to die with those eyes of hers. They were staring off into space as she absentmindedly rubbed a red tattoo that was on her forehead.

Putting my phone up to my ear I asked, "You got anything that can help with that Little Bear?"

In the background, I heard some yelling in Italian followed by some hurried footsteps. Those footsteps came to halt and I heard Little Bear growl out, "Of course. Of fucking course, you had to run into someone from their company."

The woman in front of me stopped rubbing her tattoo as I started nearing the fountain and inquired, "Company? What company? Do we have a new competitor or something?"

"MBI, it started out as a pharmaceutical company but it's trying it's best to become a modern-day monopoly. They kept trying to buy out the city to...you know what it doesn't matter. Just get out of there before we get the whole city coming down on our ass." explained Little Bear.

The gray-haired lady didn't seem to keen to approach as I walked to the other side of the fountain. She stopped dead in her tracks as the girl near my feet finally showed some recognition in her eyes. I looked over to the now crying girl sitting near the fountain and said, "I think I got an idea."

**AN:** Well folks that's a wrap for today. Sorry about the little cliff hanger, but I've already been writing for an hour and a half and I thought this was a good place to stop for tonight. Tell me, who do you think these two new people are? And what about Salvatore. (Cookies to whoever can guess who he's gonna be based on in future chapters. Here's a hint he's got a little friend.)

Other than that I still think this is going to be a very interesting challenge for me. If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to send me a message or leave a review.

Jackie's out in the dead of night with a crazy woman chasing him, a crying girl at his feet, and blood on his suit. Do you want to find out what happens next? Well then come see me next time on a Game of Chance, coming to you soon!

~ciao


	4. A Little Bit of Ice

**AN: **Disclaimer is on my profile. ~enjoy

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

A Little bit of Ice

_Well here goes nothing._ I thought.

I gave one more glance at the screwball of a woman behind me and started to walk up to the woman openly crying near the fountain. Just as I reached her side a momentary thought ran through my head that being what would I actually say to her.

Now don't get me wrong I've never had any trouble talking to people or women in general (Hell just ask Vinnie about my exploits with the twins!), but how in the hell are you supposed to start a conversation with someone like that.

She was an admittedly beautiful woman, but she just looked so broken. It made what was left of my heart churn as I thought about what I'd do next.

_Is it worth it? _I thought.

The gray-haired psycho not thirty feet away with the three and a half foot long sword was starting to make me think so. I walked around the side of the fountain into the woman's view and she stopped her sniffling. Doing my best to put on an award-winning smile I walked up to her.

In the loudest voice I could muster I crowed, "There you are Alba, I've been looking all over!"

In my head, I was thinking _let's hope she's actually homeless and goes along with it._

The crying woman's glazed over eyes narrowed in on my face as she opened her mouth to speak. Cutting her off I leaned down and pulled her up to her feet with my left arm. She was surprisingly light for her size.

As my hand touched her arm I could feel the night air get significantly colder for a second and I thought _What the?_

Doing my best to keep the act together I brought her into a light hug while bellowing, "You had me worried sick!" in a brotherly voice.

Holding myself there for a second I quietly said, "A thousand of the local currency if you play along."

Blood rushed to the snow woman's cheeks as I pulled myself away from her. I could see her eyes fill with an almost abject fear as I stepped back and said, "Come on sis, we gotta back to the house. It's way too cold out here anyway."

I did my best to position myself in a position where the gray-haired woman would have to get into sight of the woman in front of me to actually get close. Leaning out to grab the snow woman's hand I thought T_hey're soft._

Surprisingly enough for me, my bet paid out. As I gave the woman's hand a slight tug she followed along behind me without a word. I did my best to not look conspicuous with the speed at which I walked, but it seemed Murphy wasn't done with me yet tonight.

Behind me, I heard what could best be described as the air being cut apart before a small hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned around with dread filling my heart. In all her glory was the same maniac from before, her grin stretched wide on her face.

The snow woman pulled her hand from mine as she laid her eyes upon the crazed female behind us. I could see the snow woman take an almost defensive stance between me and the psycho as the temperature dropped again.

The gray-haired woman didn't seem perturbed as she asked, "Have you been in contact with any MBI personnel tonight, by chance?"

The snow woman let out one word.

"Leave," she ordered.

As the word left her lips both of her arms took up position on either side of her body. The left one was raised above her head, while the right one was below her hips. Each hand was an open palm, but I could notice something building on the grass near her feet.

_Permafrost?_ I thought.

Once again the psycho didn't back off as she added, "A security guard by chance? Overweight, not a lot of hair, and missing a few teeth?" with the last word she said the crazed smile on her face turned almost happy for a split second before it reverted back to its original position.

_Well, that explains the inexperience at least... _I thought.

The brunette in front of me stared down the gray-haired woman and growled out, "Leave before you freeze Karasuba!"

I started to slowly bring my open hand up to push the now named Karasuba away but she did it for me. Karasuba brought down her hand from my shoulder and put it on the handle of the sword on her back. I could see her smile go paper-thin as she inclined her head to one said and asked, "Is that a threat?"

_God, what I wouldn't do for a piece right now._ I thought.

With Karasuba having let me go I slowly back peddled away from the two women. The snow woman tensed the muscles in her hand above her head and I saw something that would break my world view.

Ice. Long needle-shaped bars of ice formed above her head in a row of five. There was one for each finger. The ice itself was a bright blue, and it looked completely unnatural compared to anything else around here. Coming out from behind each one of the ice sickles was a mist of pure frost. It seemed like it was preparing to burst forward at a moment's notice.

Now I know what your thinking right, magic? Really, of all the cliched things you could do you had to pick magic? Well if you think that's bad wait till we get to the part about aliens. Oh, wait. Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that yet. Where was I?

You might have thought I would somehow develop some crazy supernatural ability and join in the fight like some kind of superhero, and you'd be wrong. This was a bit above my pay grade if you ask me. Just as the snow woman brought down her hand I jumped back the best I could.

In the air, the five needles of ice shot forward with a distinct whistling sound and from where I landed on the ground I could hear a loud 'swish' noise ring out in the air. I looked over to where they stood by the fountain and I could see Karasuba standing with her sword out and small pieces of ice littering the ground in front of her.

I slowly brought myself back up while a thousand and one thoughts ran through my mind with the main two being _How the hell am I going to get out of this one? _And _Magic?!_

I looked over to the snow woman who already had another large array of ice needles above her head. She jumped back from the fountain into the nearby grass and I noticed just how...indecent wearing only a lab coat is.

For some reason the woman thought it was a good idea to do a front flip in nothing but a bloody lab coat. Suffice to say I ended up getting a good eye full. After my brain took a few precious seconds to reboot I thought _Come on Jackie now's not the time for this crap!_

Doing my best to take charge in any way I can, I quietly made my way over to a nearby tree. Underneath it there was a small pile of brush with a couple of large sticks; it looked like something tried to make a nest there at some point.

I leaned down and grabbed a fairly hefty branch with both of my hands. With the gnarled piece of oak planted in my hands, I thought _It'll do._

Over at the other side of the park, Karasuba and the snow woman were making a mess of things. With each attack the snow woman made a new landmark showed up in the park. She seemed to be surrounded by permanent winter as the grass around her turned to ice and with each moved limb large shards would appear to attack Karasuba. The only thing only noise being made besides the swishing of a sword and crunching ice was the light pitter-patter of the snow woman's bare feet on the pavement as she moved.

Despite the odds Karasuba wasn't injured at all, each attack the snow woman made only ended up being cut to pieces as it went towards the gray-haired woman. _There's no way she's human _I thought.

With her next attack, the snow woman switched it up a little. I saw her bring up one of her long, pale legs straight up into the air. Once again I got an eye full of her...I slapped myself on the cheek lightly and thought _Bad Jackie!_

As her barefoot reached the same height as her head I could see the same mist as before flowing off the top of it. At a speed I could barely follow, she brought down her foot and slammed it onto the frostbitten ground below. From beneath her foot came a cascade of ice spikes shooting up from the ground and towards Karasuba.

The gray-haired woman rolled out of the way while laughing. She gripped her sword sideways and seemed to blur forward. As fast as a bullet she reappeared near the snow woman; I could see blood spurt into the air as my eyes trailed along with them. The snow woman let out an agonizing scream and fell to one knee while grasping her left shoulder.

Looking over from where she was standing I could see the lab coat now torn to tatters as blood dripped down from her shoulder. Karasuba was standing over her sword held high. A disparaging thought came to me, _How in the hell am I supposed to beat that?_

Then I looked into the snow woman's eyes. They were wide as saucers and full of almost childlike innocence. The fear of death present in her as she looked at me hit a little to close to home. Images flashed through my head of the one person I'd ever call father flashed through my head. I could almost see him yelling at me for not running forward to help her. _Oh God, what did Vinnie say again? That women would be the death of me? _I thought. Deciding against my better judgment I ran forward with the club held high.

And with a strength I didn't know I had, I brought down the club, saved the girl, and lived happily ever after. My life went on like a series of Saturday morning shorts and I became the best mafioso to ever live. Well, that's what I wished happened.

I ended up missing, by a lot. The impromptu club didn't serve much of a purpose besides breaking against the dirt as Karasuba leaped out of the way. The snow woman's eyes started to look more and more scared as she lost blood, but all the same, she did her best and stood back up.

Looking down at the splintered leftovers of my club I thought _Maybe it won't do so well._

From behind me, I heard Karasuba growl out, "I'll paint the ground with your blood monkey!"

"Monkey?" I asked.

The sword-wielding maniac didn't reply.

From behind me, I heard the telltale sign of ice cracking as a few more large sickles impacted the fountain behind Karasuba. The once beautiful fountain was left in ruins. Stone was strewn about mixed with slowly melting chunks of ice and blood.

The snow woman ran to the side and kept firing her ice magic crap. I looked over to her and could tell from the weariness in her eyes that she was about to go down. Unlike the gracefulness from before her whole body was wobbling with each step.

Doing the best I could to keep up in my suit I rushed towards the fountain where Karasuba and the snow woman were staring each other down. I don't know whether it was the adrenaline getting to me or the leftover alcohol from early that night, but the next thing I did was very stupid.

Just as the snow woman stomped on the ground once again I did a running leap at Karasuba. To my good fortune, or misfortune depending on how you look at it, I didn't miss. Karasuba let out a girly "Eep!" as my full body weight crushed down on her.

**AN:** I know a cliff hanger again, I'm sorry please don't kill me. I'm already at 2K words and I decided this would be a good place to stop for now as I need to finish a chapter for another story. The next chapter will be out soonish so don't panic too much.

Story-wise I'll just outright say where I'm going with the writing in this story as it's not going to spoil anything, but it does help show the way I'm writing it. Have you ever watched the movie The Irish Man? It's very similar to that. Jackie is the narrator and is telling this story to someone else in the future. I'm not going to say how long into the future or to who for now, but I'm laying it out for anybody that didn't pick up on it.

Moving on, how do you guys think I did? Is it good or bad? Tell me what you guys think and I'll be sure to respond. I'd love to see some critiques of my work! Other than that See you all later.

~ciao


	5. A Comical End

**AN: **I was sorely tempted for this chapter to go another way. Other than that I'll get off my ass and finish this chapter. Disclaimer is on my profile. ~enjoy

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

A Comical End

All it takes to completely change your life is one moment, and it doesn't even have to be something that seemed important at the time. You can take this one for instance. My one little tumble would force me into something that would make Fight Club look like a Sunday afternoon cartoon. (1)

Just before I tumbled down on top of the woman I tried my best to push her out of the way. Being half drunk and well me, things didn't go as planned. If I would have stayed still I'd have probably hit her on the back of the head.

As soon as I came into contact with her Karasuba's head twisted to face me. Unable to control my body, I lurched forward and smashed my face into hers; the gray-haired lady let out a girlish "Eep!" as our lips touched.

For a second I saw her eyes go wide then they narrowed into slits. Unlike her usual demeanor, her entire face burst into a violent shade of red. We landed on the ground with me on top, either of my hands on each side of her while her sword was knocked a few feet away.

Her eyes started to dull as I pulled myself back; From where I was situated I could see a bright gray light start to shimmer from her back. The small light no more comparable to a dull candle started to grow with each breath we took. After a few scarce seconds, the light turned into a blazing sun.

From behind her nape came two enormous, luminescent wings. Each one of them was gray in coloration while the skin (If you could call it that even. It looked more akin from something out of an old Ghost Busters movie.) was almost completely see-through. Inside the wings themselves were thin wiry bones that started to slowly outstretch as the woman lost more of the light in her eyes.

As the transparent wings reached their full-length Karasuba's mouth seemed to open of its own accord as she muttered, "Sekirei number zero four, Karasuba. May the blood of our enemies pour and their bones be ground to dust, forever and ever."

From where I stood, I was slack-jawed at the display. Slowly but surely the light show died down as the sinister appendages disappeared into the woman's back. I looked back down the woman below me and stuttered, "W-What the?"

Underneath me, I saw the woman's entire body tense as vitreous fury built up in her eyes. From behind me, I heard the now almost naked snow woman mutter, "It's not fair."

With the same stupid look on my face, I turned my head over my shoulder for a split second and caught sight of her. The snow woman had the same dejected expression from before starting to slowly build upon her face. Her right eye trembled then a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Emotionless this time the woman whispered, "It's not fair."

Below me, Karasuba seemed to finally get her wits back as she slowly pulled her legs up. Knowing the hidden power behind those seemingly frail legs I did my best to get off her. Pulling her leg up even further the gray-haired woman growled, "I'll..."

"Uh...no harm done right? It was just a kiss, come on were both adults here." I pleaded while trying my best to put on an award-winning smile.

Karasuba didn't take it well as a sickly sweet smile washed over her face and she ground out, "I'll..."

She arched her back almost as if she was going to jump up, only her feet were on my chest. Looking down I felt a little bit of bile in my throat and asked one more time, "please?"

My body got lifted into the air as she roared, "I'll strangle you with your own intestines!"

This is the part where the wall comes in. (2)

Pushing me up into the air, Karasuba flung both of her legs upwards. I proceeded to let out a girlish scream as I went head over heels towards a nearby shack. It looked like something a gardener or some type of groundskeeper would use. The small hostel looked to be well taken care of with the only noticeable dilapidation being a broken window. The glass panes were cracked in a long spiderweb-like fashion from the top right corner all the way down to the wood of the shack.

A thundering crack resounded out into the park as a new hole appeared in the side of the building, with me in it. You always see people on T.V. or in action movies do crap like that but let me tell it to you straight.

It's worse, a whole hell of a lot worse.

At first, I didn't really feel much pain, only a sense of something warm trickling down my forehead and a couple of small pokes. You could compare it to a splinter only there were thousands of them all over my body. As a fog started to cover my mind, I brought my hand up to my forehead trying to wipe off the crap that got stuck on it.

My hand didn't look to be too torn up, only a few small cuts here or there, but the thick sloppy substance that I could only assume to be blood was worrying. I gave each of my limbs a sort of test run by stretching them out while thinking, _Ugh, I gotta move..._

My muscles groaned in protest, but I didn't think anything was broken. Doing my best to get up, I flipped over onto my stomach and stretched out my arms. That's when the fog blowing in my mind started to fade away. All at once the feeling in my body came back as I let out a lone, solemn moan.

Meanwhile, Karasuba sprinted over to where her sword was just a few feet away from the fountain. Not checking her surroundings would be her last mistake that day (at least for that one).

When she leaned down to grab her nodachi, the snow woman finally got out of her funk and got back into the fight. The brunette woman haltingly brought down her open hand as blue ice appeared in it. Quietly the snow woman made her way over to Karasuba.

The ice seemed to form some type of club as she gripped it in both hands. The club itself looked like some crossbreed between a baseball bat and a mace. It had some form a handle as well as little sharpened flangs on the head but I doubted it would do much against a sword. At the time I couldn't see it, but the look on her face was almost vindictive as she finally reached Karasuba.

The gray-haired psychopath having finally picked up her sword was too preoccupied with rearranging my innards...God, I could have stated that better. Hmmm...She was too preoccupied with trying to make my insides my outsides than to notice the other woman sneaking up on her. That doesn't quite sound right either. Oh well, moving on!

At a speed no human would be able to see, the snow woman brought down her ice-mace onto the back of Karasuba's head. An almost comical "Bonk!" played out through the night as Karasuba unceremoniously crumpled to the ground.

While this was playing out a few scarce feet away from me, I finally got back on my feet. Deciding to do the sensible thing, well for whenever you come across a homeless ice witch and an inhuman swords-woman, I looked around to see what was going on.

My eyes slowly traveled over the cold grass and debris to reach the scene of the now almost entirely naked snow woman standing over an unconscious Karasuba holding nothing but a club of thick, blue ice in her hands.

My eyes looked down at the comatose woman on the ground then they slowly trailed back up to the nude woman standing over her. I walked over to them while gripping the cut on my forehead. All in all it didn't seem to be too bad, but I'd rather not bleed to death. A few choice thoughts brushed into my mind as I looked down at the woman who started all of this.

As I reached the two of them the brunette's eyes locked onto mine. Doing my best not to look down again I took off my jacket while thinking, _It's better than nothing at least._

I brought half of it over her shoulder then encouraged, "Here wear this. I don't know how you're not freezing to-" I stopped myself mid-sentence then continued, "-Oh yeah. Ice powers...God, it's been a long day."

She didn't say anything at first, but her almost glacial stare started to melt as the splinter covered cloth wrapped around her shoulders. I saw her cheeks darken a tad as she quietly muttered, "Ah." followed by her looking down at her feet.

"My name..." She hesitated.

The woman's pale skin started to take on more and more of a rosy complexion as she continued with, "Akitsu."

I opened my mouth to respond but the phone in my left pocket cut me off with three loud rings. (3)

**AN:** Alrighty then folks, that's chapter five for this story. One new thing I messed around within this chapter is that the main character, Jackie, can retrospectively comment on what happened because this is written as a sort of memoir. Also while researching this chapter I couldn't find anything concrete on how "winging" actually works besides a kiss or sometimes an exchange of bodily fluids so I decided to do what worked best for this story. There were no set rules so I made some that I'll develop as this story continues. Go ahead and tell me what you guys think about it in a comment, PM, or even a review. I'm open to any and all criticism. Other than that going onto the citations.

(1) Fight Club is a pretty good movie and a really good book. You guys should check it out if you have the time. This line is comparing something kind of horrific to something completely mundane and ordinary.

(2) This is a reference to the end of chapter one.

(3) I wonder who this could be?

~ciao


	6. Top Floor Please!

**AN: **Hey, hey people! How's it going? *Looks at 75K word story* I've been ah...a bit busy. It's also been a while since I've written in first person. You all know the deal here so I'll keep it brief. Let's get to the action, shall we? ~enjoy

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

Top Floor Please!

You know when I first heard the ringing coming from my pocket I thought I finally snapped after all of the shenanigans from that night. My buzz had long since faded while the two women, one naked the other one unconscious, were both in front of me proving it was all real.

To be honest I was hoping it was all some drugged up fever dream and one of the boys pulled a nasty prank. Considering the fact that I could feel the cold night air around me and that there were no crazy visuals I knew it was too good to be true.

Well that and nobody here would have anything in the first place...Japan was strict on crap like that.

A little apprehensive, I pulled my phone out of my pocket as the obnoxious ringtone continued dinging. Just before I flipped the device open I thought _This isn't even my normal ringtone...what the hell?_

The crappy burner opened up with a just as obnoxious voice exclaiming, "Welcome to the world of tomorrow!"

The voice came out rather high pitched but still decidedly male. It also had the sort of eccentric flair you'd see from some type of thrill-seeker, all hopped up about the next new thing. Putting it on speaker I responded, "Who in the hell is this?"

On the other end, the man let out a furtive cough before replying, "Oh come on, can't you just play along? Please? I had a bit prepared and everything."

Looking off into the distance, my eyes slowly zeroed into my hotel a couple of blocks away. It was a pretty large place sticking out from the rest of the buildings. Me and my *ahem* associates rented out the entire top floor for our _business _endeavors_._

"Can you just not? I don't have enough alcohol in my system to deal with any more of this shit. Just get on with it already." I vented all the while motioning for Akitsu to follow behind me.

The diminutive girl kept pace with me, not saying a single word. Looking over at her I could see some of her...ah curves sticking out beneath my jacket. It didn't seem to fit her quite well. Pale flesh peeked out just below in a manner that would make a pervert's day.

The snow woman didn't seem to mind it at all though as she stood by my side. Suddenly her eyes met mine and she quickly looked away. A hand covered by the long sleeves of my suit jacket shot to her mouth just barely covering a growing blush.

Shaking my head a bit, I turned back towards my hotel where, hopefully, no one was back yet.

"Well drat, you're no fun. Fine then...You've recently winged Sekirei number-" in the background, I could hear the sound of papers flying before the man brought his voice back into focus "-number four? Wait that can't be right..."

From the other side of the call, I could hear more papers fly followed by some frantic yelling before the man finally seemed to finish whatever little search he was doing. In the end, he came back then said, "You actually winged Sekirei number four...that's wasn't supposed to happen. Well, all in the name of progress!"

Already annoyed with the man's antics, my finger began to slowly drift towards the red button on my flip phone. All it would take is a little push. With my blood pressure rising I pulled my thumb away before roughly gritting out, "What do you want? And I swear to all that is floating in the heavens above if you say one more slapstick line I'll hang up."

In a jittery tone, I heard the man cough before he finally deemed me with a response. The same almost maniacal laugh was heard before he said, "But that's what this is all for! You, Jackie Estacado, have been chosen to take part in a game of the gods!" (1)

Under my breath, I let out a small curse in Italian before roughly pushing the red button. I didn't know what in the hell the maniac was talking about nor did I really want to learn more about it. Whatever _game _he was toting could leave me the hell alone.

I'd come to regret hanging up that call, but that would be much later.

My family's little trip to Japan was supposed to be short and sweet with nothing going wrong. We'd already set up talks with some of the country's locally organized groups, and we were just waiting for a time and a place to meet.

Slowly looking over to the shuffling girl to my right I thought _I didn't sign up for this crap._

The weird-ass supernatural chicks could stick to themselves. Now I know that might seem boring, but hey I'd call it smart. Who in God's name would want to take part in all this crap besides some stupid kid looking for a way out of his boring life? The only thing I could see the whole debacle as was a good way to get myself killed. It would be better to just stick with what I know.

Well let's just say that I'd like to live my own life, and that doesn't include two magical chicks, one with a hate boner for me and the other spitting out ice sickle in every which way. Pulling me out of my thoughts was Akitsu herself.

_What in the hell do I do with her? _I pondered as we came up to my hotel.

She looked to be homeless when I first met her, but with something decidedly _weird _going on in this city, I was starting to doubt that. Maybe she did something to get her thrown out of whatever little group keeps people like her?

None of it seemed to really make sense.

Roughly I rushed past the bellboy as he opened the door with his eyes going wide at the sight of the woman following behind me. I could see the younger man go red underneath his collar as he decided to bring his eyes up towards the ceiling, smart boy.

Luckily enough for me, it was already rather late and almost no one was at the hotel, well at least not in the lobby.

Heading towards the lower floor's main elevator I pressed the button with an arrow pointing up; immediately it lit up, glowing a vibrant white. From behind me, I heard a diminutive voice ask, "Where are we going?"

I continued to stare up at the slowly decreasing number marking the elevator's fast descent. Without even turning around I replied, "I pay back my debts, ice mage or no. We're going to go upstairs get you a stack like I said then you can go do whatever the hell you want."

Before she could respond the elevator doors popped open with a light, "Ding!" Moving as quickly as I could I trudged into the carrier with Akitsu following just behind. Looking over she seemed to have something on the tip of her tongue.

The woman's face was nervously moving to and fro in any direction that wasn't at me. I could see one of her hands daintily pull itself up like she wanted to get my attention before it dropped back down. Taking pity on her I inquired, "What is it?"

"I-I don't need the money..." Akitsu started still with the same nervous undertones still present within her voice. It felt like she was teetering close to collapse, an abject fear building beneath the surface. For me at least, I couldn't understand it.

Pressing the button for the top floor, both metal elevator doors closed locking us inside the contraption. Slowly I felt it begin to move with an upturn similar to that of a roller-coaster building within my stomach.

Akitsu appeared to steel herself as the floors quickly passed by. Her eyes filled with determination she exclaimed, "I just want to stay! Please!"

As the words left Akitsu's mouth she roughly grabbed onto my white undershirt wrapping a hand around me. A look akin to that of a kicked puppy appeared on the woman's face as she slowly pushed me up against the elevator's wall. Fear was still ever-present within her eyes, burning a guilty hole through my head. I could feel her warm breaths slowly creep along my neck.

Another loud ding rang out as we reached the top floor. I wasn't paying too much attention to that though, with the beautiful woman literally clinging to me. A little bit flustered at first, I didn't answer.

Akitsu's hand holding onto my arm started trembling as the silence continued. I could see that same deadened expression from before start to build upon her face. Memories of my family buying out the top floor of the hotel brushed through my mind as I thought _It couldn't hurt right? For just a day..._

Interrupting the little moment was the voice of the person I'd least want to see me in such a situation. In a teasing tone, from the hallway outside the elevator, Vinnie called out, "Well look at you, Jackie! Didn't know you had it in ya!"

Roughly turning my head to the side as Akitsu continued to press her entire body against my I could see the rather short man quickly pulling out a phone from his back pocket. Before I could even react the familiar noise of a camera's snap hit my ears.

Still leaning up against the elevator's wall I whispered, "Fuck."

**AN: **Well that's a wrap folks. I know it's been a while and I apologize for that, but I'm mostly going to be pushing along my main focus right now, A Different Kind of God. From time to time I'll be updating this, but not at my normal rate of 1-2 times a week like my other stories.

One thing that surprised me at least was that this story had a rather large following it gathered for being so small. I'd keep getting emails saying someone new was following or favorited this story long after I've posted the last chapter. It's encouraging to see at least.

I don't know when I'm going to start the next chapter of this right now. I'm thinking of just writing a bit of it when I normally write and when I get to the usual chapter size just posting that. I've got nothing else for ya today and like always I accept any and all criticism so hit me with it!

(1) I mentioned this earlier that I'm basing this OC on one of my favorite videogame characters. My Jackie doesn't have anything from the Darkness videogames or comics but he does look pretty similar. Backstory wise, he's almost a completely different person with how he joined up and whatnot. There's nothing else from the videogames specifically that's going to be included; I just really liked Jackie's personality from the games.

~ciao


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